Covid-19 fines - 319/2020
1a) Individual police forces have been reporting the number of fines they have issued for breaches of the government's public health regulations to the NPCC. You can see that data here. To date, the NPCC has published data on the number of fines issued for the period 27 March to 13 April, broken down by individual force and totalled for ethnicity. Please could you provide me with the ethnic breakdown of fines issued by your force for the period 27 March to 13 April. I would expect the categories to include, but not be limited to, White, Black, Asian, Mixed/Mixed Race. There may also be a category for people who did not self-identify their ethnicity.
1b) I understand the NPCC has asked forces for more recent data. Please could you also provide me with the ethnic breakdown of fines issued for the period 13 April to 11 May. I would expect the categories to include, but not be limited to, White, Black, Asian, Mixed/Mixed Race. There may also be a category for people who did not self-identify their ethnicity.
As you have already collated this data for the NPCC, I would not expect this FoI to trigger the cost exemption. Neither should it trigger the exemption that the data will be published at a future point as the NPCC will publish the more recent data this week or next, and the due date for this FoI falls considerably after. I also do not think the NPCC has plans to publish the ethnicity data of fines by force. If you have any concerns, I would suggest contacting the NPCC for their exact publication date and plans. If you have only collected data for the NPCC up to a certain date, say 1 May and to go beyond that date would trigger the cost exemption, please amend question 2 so that "11 May" is replaced by the date up to which you have collected information for the NPCC.
2) If you have not collected data for these time periods for the NPCC, please provide me with the number of fines your force issued for breaches of the government's public health regulations between 27 April and 11 May. Please provide this number broken down by ethnicity. I would expect the categories to include, but not be limited to, White, Black, Asian, Mixed/Mixed Race. There may also be a category for people who did not self-identify their ethnicity.